Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Operetta Tanuki Goten

Princess Raccoon

Japan 2005
produced by
Ikki Katashima, Satoru Ogura, Noboyuki Tohya (executive) for Dentsu Inc, Nippon Herald Pictures, Shochiku
directed by Seijun Suzuki
starring Zhang Ziyi, Jo Odagiri, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Mikijiro Hira, Taro Yamamoto, Gentaro Takahashi, Saori Yuki, Miwako Ichikawa, Hibari Misora (stock footage), Eisuke Sasai, Papaiya Suzuki, Taro Nanshu, Federico Aletta
written by Yoshio Urasawa, music by Michiru Oshima, Ryomei Shirai, music performed by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, visual effects supervisor: Norio Ishii

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


Somewhere in fairytale land: King Azuki Momoyama (Mikijiro Hira) wants to be the most beautiful human alive ... but unfortunately, his son, Prince Amechiyo (Jo Odagiri), is even more handsome than he is - so he has him (like his mother before him) banished to Sacred Castle, a place from where noone has ever returned. However, Ostrich, the ninja supposed to bring him to the castle, is stopped cold by a group of peasants on the way, and - thought to be a raccoon - captured to be cooked later on.

Amechiyo meets Princess Raccoon (Zhang Ziyi), a raccoon in human form, and the two frolic around in the woods a bit before she brings him back to Raccoon Castle where the Prince, not a raccoon and therefore a possible threat, is put in a cage. Still, Amechiyo and Princess Raccoon soon fall in love ...

Soon enough, the Maid of Virgin, Azuki's right hand woman, comes to claim Amechiyo's head and captures him and Princess Raccoon, but in a duel of stone-paper-scissors, Hagi, the Princess' handmaid, defeats the Maid of Virgin and kills her (!), thus freeing both Prince and Princess.

The two lovebirds now see themselves free to marry, but Hagi still thinks Amechiyo's a threat to the Princess and to Castle Raccoon, so she persuades him to leave. However, Princess Raccoon goes after her lover and catches up with him just when he comes face to face with his father Azuki. In a fight, the Princess kills Azuki but is herself gravely wounded, and will die eventually if not treated with the Frog of Paradise. Since Prince Amechiyo would do anything for his love, he sets out to find the Frog of Paradise, a long and perilous journey, and when he has finally found it, he is to weak to bring it back to Castle Raccoon. Out of jealousy though, Hagi has gone after Amechiyo, but when she sees him dieing but still handing the Frog of PAradise over to her to bring her Princess, she sees him in another light.

Back at Castle raccoon, Princess Raccoon is cured by the Frog of Paradise, but when she hears that Amechiyo died trying to retrieve it, she kills herself.

In the land of the dead, Amechiyo and Azuki have their final showdown, which Amechiyo wins when his father notices how horribly disfigured he has become.

Back in Castle Raccoon, some kids try the Frog of Paradise on the bodies of Princess Raccoon and Prince Amechiyo again - and wouldn't you know it, the frog still works and restores them back to life ... and they can live happily ever after, even though he is a man and she is a raccoon ...

 


No matter what kind of movies you normally watch, it's a safe bet to say this film is like nothing you've ever seen (with the possible exception of Seijun Suzuki's own somehow similar Pistol Opera): While quite clearly a children's fairy tale in story and a musical or operetta by genre, in style it's a wild, even outrageous mixture of elements of Kabuki as well as Shakespearean theatre, fantasy as well as avant garde film, of modern CGI and most primitive stage effects, of all different kinds of music from operetta to pop and rock and even rap, and even in sets, the film is (deliciously) undecided between realistic outdoor sets and sloppily painted stage backdrops. But if all that sounds like lacking a concept or forced, brainheavy or heavy handed, the film isn't, it's light, it's fresh, it's entertaining, it's even funny - and it shows that even at 82, director Seijun Suzuki is one of the most creative and most unpredictable directors of Japanese cinema.

Highest recommendation.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Princess Raccoon
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Princess Raccoon here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Princess Raccoon at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!